Design and manufacturing of direct mirco- and long-fibre lightweight composites

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The automotive industry is one of the core markets for long-fibre thermoplastic (LFT) composites because of their inherent advantages such as weight-effectiveness, structural dimensional stability, high strength, enhanced modulus, superior creep resistance, and heat resistance. There is always market pressure for innovation and revolution to reduce cost, fuel consumption, and weight of the vehicle. Direct long-tibre thermoplastic (0-LFT compounding and molding is the new market trend in the automotive industry for manufacturing structural body parts as well as exterior body panels. While numerous advances have been made in the manufacturing methods of 0-LFT technology, particularly in fatigue behavior and damping properties, it still finds limited applications in the North American automotive industry. This is mostly because it requires high throughput production (500,000 units or more) to be cost-effective. Use of natural fibres in the 0-LFT compounding process has been impeded by the lack of availability of continuous long fibre and the lack of requirements (such as thermal degradation, and compatibility) identified by the automotive industry. The objective of this research is to develop high performance cellulose fibre reinforced composites by developing a unique and high throughput Microfibre-Direct Long Fibre processing Technology (MF-DLFT). This technology integrates standard DLFT with the cellulose microfibre composite processing technology developed at the Univer.$ity of Toronto (U ofT) to produce automotive parts using renewable and petrochemical-based polymers, reinforced with continuous mineral fibres and discontinuous natural fibres. At this moment, the proposed technology is currently beyond the means of all major Canadian research institutions, and thus, needs close working collaboration with Ford Motor Co., one of the leading automotive manufacturers in Canada. The outcome of this research will be a quantum leap forward in developing new automotive components by reducing the part weight and will benefit Ford by helping them to fulfill their vision of utilizing the maximum amount of high strength composite materials from renewable resources.